NEWS

Bulgaria and Slovenia Will Strengthen Their Support for the Process of European Integration of the Western Balkan Countries

The Southeast European countries which joined the EU have achieved significant results in their development and should strengthen their support for the process of European integration of the Western Balkan countries. This was the common position shared by Rosen Plevneliev and Karl Erjavec, foreign minister of the Republic of Slovenia, who held talks at 2 Dondukov street today. Karl Erjavec is visiting Bulgaria to take part in the SEECP summit.

The two were unanimous that under conditions of a myriad of crises, the countries from our region bear a shared responsibility for preserving the stability in the Balkans. Slovenia will take over the chairmanship-in-office of SEECP in 2017.

The two shared the opinion that the bilateral trade between Bulgaria and Slovenia worth 265 million euros may be considerably increased and the two countries will encourage the contacts between the business circles. “The most dynamic markets for Bulgaria are namely in our region and we have managed to double our trade with some of them in the past years,” President Plevneliev commented.  “Slovenia’s economy offers favorable conditions for the Bulgarian business and we also see such prospects for the Slovenian business in Bulgaria,” Minister Erjavec said.

The opportunities for a further expansion of the economic cooperation will be in the focus of the Head of State’s forthcoming visit to Slovenia in July 2016. The ICT sector, and the exchange of students and experts in this sector were highlighted as most perspective.

The active cooperation between Bulgaria and Slovenia in the spheres of science, education and culture were also noted at the meeting. The interest in learning Slovenian language and culture in Bulgaria has increased and so has the interest in learning Bulgarian language and culture in Slovenia.